The title they chose to go with was “Is the browser going nowhere?” (or “Do new Web tools spell doom for the browser?”). I guess sensationalism is always a useful way to sell articles, but the actual article isn’t quite so melodramatic. The idea is that the traditional browser experience might not be ideal for every application on today’s Web, and that a number of companies are addressing the need for new tools. What tomorrow’s browser might look like — or to what extent it might disappear altogether — remains up in the air.

Check it out and let me know what you think.

Consider, for example, the humble battery. We all bemoan the fact that our portable devices don’t last long enough (or, occasionally, that they explode). But have you ever stopped to think how advances in battery technology have changed personal technology? Without modern lithium-ion batteries the iPod would hardly be possible, and your mobile phone would still look like a brick.

Among the other technologies given an airing are XML (it really is everywhere); managed code like Java and Microsoft .Net; and the mysterious world of digital signal processing, where incredibly complex mathematics gets packaged into chips to let you play your MP3s. Who knew?

Check it out and let know what you think.

Astute observers will recall that I’ve owned fatalexception.org for some time, so the choice of titles isn’t entirely a coincidence. But it also means something, which I’ve tried to explain in the first post.

In programming parlance, an exception is some kind of unforeseen condition that raises a red flag in the system. And since the story of computing and the Internet reads like a history of unforeseen developments and unlikely outcomes, I thought the title was a pretty decent choice. Plus it sounds cool.

At any rate, over the coming weeks you can expect me to cover stories relevant to Web and software developers and the people who love them. Sometimes I’ll be on a “big think” level, other times it will be nitty-gritty technical stuff. But the idea here is to help to chronicle the ever-changing world of software and computing and how developers keep on changing it. That will inevitably involve a lot of “Web 2.0″ type stuff, but more traditional software development also.

I should have a new column up each Thursday morning, with maybe some shorter posts interspersed here and there throughout the week, when interesting things pop up. As with my PC World blog, I’ll pull in the RSS feed and list the most recent posts in the righthand column, so this site remains a good place to keep up with everything I’m doing, including any upcoming in-depth articles or features (more of those to come soon).

At any rate, I hope you like the new blog and I can develop it into something that suits you. Please don’t hesitate to send feedback, either here or at InfoWorld.com.

Expect a bit of a departure from my Neil on Software blog at PC World. Instead, this one will take me back to my roots, looking at news, trends, and issues for software developers, with a particular emphasis on the new generation of “Web 2.0″ technologies (hate that term).

Between the two blogs, I should get an opportunity to look at a wide range of stuff that interests me — from basic productivity software and office-oriented how-tos, all the way up to Web frameworks, databases, and scripting languages. (Now all I need is a gig writing about hardware and gadgets — any takers out there?)

As before, I hope to keep an RSS feed of my latest posts here on this site, so one way to keep up with what I’m doing in each of these two “worlds” will be to look here.

More info as I get it. But as it looks right now, the InfoWorld blog could launch as soon as next week — or whenever we think up a title for it, whichever comes later.

Speaking of which, if you have a killer idea for a title for a developer-themed blog that you’re willing to give up, send it my way. If we actually end up using it, I’ll make sure you get something-or-other.

But that’s not all. A lot of other reporters have posted really unusual stories this morning. It’s so confounding that the InfoWorld editors have organized the more dubious items into a special report.

I’ve avoided criticizing this release too harshly, since it is still only in beta. More than anything, though, I was pleasantly surprised with how generally stable and functional it is, even in this prerelease form. The new installer is particularly interesting, as it allows you to install Ubuntu onto an existing Windows box without re-partitioning your drive. Click on over to InfoWorld to read my full account.

This will be a bit different from the hard enterprise-focused coverage I’ve done at InfoWorld in the past. Pitching more toward the PC World demographic, this new blog will aim to cover products of interest to small and midsize businesses, with maybe the occasional enterprise-focused story thrown in for good measure. Productivity applications, security, back office, collaboration and communication, storage software, and even lightweight development apps will all be grist for the mill.

PC World, and its parent IDG, already have a gaggle of talented people out bringing in the news stories from Silicon Valley and abroad, so I don’t expect to break much news. Instead, look for insight and analysis on new product releases, security updates, issues, and current debates from the world of software.

The new blog will join a couple of others that I expect to launch at the same time as mine (exact date as yet unknown). Glen Fleishman is on board to create a new blog about business hardware (essentially the flipside of my own), while Erik Larkin will be covering all things Web as they relate to PC World’s more business-savvy reader. (Or maybe I have those two backwards.)

Together, the goal of the new blogs is to build some buzz around the Business Center and to help fuel the discussion about IT products for the SMB market. I’ll let you know when they launch so you can hop on over and join in.

Meanwhile, I’m crossing my fingers that the IT folks at PC World will have the good sense to make an RSS feed of the blog available. If they do, I’ll make sure to have the headlines show up here on my own site so you can get a little taste of the content.

Update: InfoWorld seems to be having some serious uptime problems over the weekend. I’d love to find out what that’s all about, because it seems like it has happened before…

Longtime readers will be aware that I’m a desktop Linux fan, and I try to use Linux for my day-to-day computing as much as possible. But the media tends to place so much emphasis on the Linux operating system that people sometimes forget that what really matter are the applications.

The truth is that you don’t have to give up your mainstream OS to use some of the best free software that’s available. If you’re friendly to open source, but aren’t yet ready to make the leap to Linux full-time, check out this piece and try out some of the great applications that the community has to offer.

There’s an element of schadenfreude in this, to be sure. But it’s not just about kicking the players when they’re down. I think of it as a moment to chuckle at our own irrational exuberance and, if we’re lucky, an opportunity to learn from past mistakes.

You guys might have some other doozies that didn’t make my list. Feel free to send them my way, or post them over at InfoWorld.com. And smile, everybody! After all, what’s a few million in venture capital funding down the drain?